Archers of Artemis
by Kailor Aurelius
Summary: Konoka is just trying to have a normal college life. But how is anyone supposed to have a normal any kind of life with the psychotic archery club running the school! And what exactly is Konoemon thinking...
1. Chapter 1

**Kailor: Don't hate me for starting so many stories at this time, folks! Trying to get them started so I can work on them during the summer!**

**Nuriko: As always, we own nothing and nobody.**

**Naruto: We can't afford to own anything. Kai never brings home money.**

**Kailor: 'Tis the curse of a writer. To be broke as a joke without a punchline.**

"And this way is the astronomy tower. The fortune-telling club meets atop it every Wednesday and Thursday. Anyone interested in joining, just see me after the tour!" Konoka waved her group to follow her around the side of the tower.

This was her third tour of the university today and her last. She wasn't on tour duty again until Tuesday. The prospective freshmen scuttled after her, some jotting notes, others taking pictures. She stopped and pointed up at the astronomy tower's bulbous tip. The glass walls reflected the sunlight every which way, making it seem like a miniture sun had settled on top of the tower. Around the glass dome was the large, round balcony they used for star-gazing. The tour gasped and oohed and aahed appropiately, making her grin. She loved when the tours were attentive and suitably awed.

Then she heard the bang.

_Oh, not today. I was having such a good day._

"HEADS UP!"

She jumped aside just in time. A large slab of stone slammed into the concrete where she and three freshmen from her group had been standing. Debris flew up at them and she used her clipboard to shield her face from the tiny flecks of rock.

"What the hell was that?" One of her group members exclaimed.

She looked up, already knowing what she would see.

Sure enough, two faces were leaning out over the astronomy tower's railing. The first, looking completely unapologetic, was most definitely Kazumi Asakura. The girl's personality was as wild and bright as her red hair and her eyes, the same shade of brown as Konoka's, were always full of mischief.

At Asakura's side, with her black hair tied up to the side and her obsidian eyes, was Asakura's ever-present friend, Setsuna Sakurazaki. She and Konoka had been childhood friends back in the day. Oh, how college changed people.

"Konoka, is that you? Are you okay?" Setsuna called down. Konoka opened her mouth, ready to finally tell them off good and proper. Then she remembered her tour group, watching her, judging her and their college.

"I'm fine. Are you okay up there?"

"We're just dandy," Asakura yelled. "Just a little mishap with the C4 I believe."

_I'll mishap you. Wait until Grandpa hears about this. _She quickly gathered her shaken group members and ushered them away, assuring them that this was a completely bizarre accident and not a daily occurence. A part of her wondered how many of them knew she was lying.

The rest of the tour went great, the freshmen seemed as if they'd forgotten all about the astronomy tower incident, and she was off to her grandpa's office.

To her utter annoyance, Setsuna and Asakura were already there, waiting outside the door that said, "HEADMASTER".

With them was the usual crew of trouble-makers: Kaede Nagase, with her brown hair oddly cut short on top of a ponytail that stretched to her feet and eyes she rarely opened past a squint. Asuna Kagurazaka, twirling one of her insanely long, red pigtails around her fingers and staring around the room with her different colored gaze. Haruna Saotome, her beautiful brown hair contradicting her nerdy glasses and perverted attitude. And green-eyed, Ku Fei, the blondest chinese girl she'd ever met.

Though Asuna was her roommate and Setsuna was her childhood friend, she wasn't happy to see either one at that moment.

She marched past the lot of them, straight into the Headmaster's office. "Grandpa!" she called.

Negi Springfield, her grandfather's young secretary, looked up from a mountain of paperwork and smiled, his glasses barely hanging onto his nose and his dark red hair sticking up where he'd obviously run his hands through it a bunch of times. She remembered then that his fifteenth birthday was coming up soon and made a mental note to get the child genius an outfit that wasn't a suit.

"Here, Konoka." Konoemon appeared from one of his side rooms, stroking his long beard. He was always stroking that damn beard and just the sight of that simple movement aggravated her today. "How was today's tours?"

"Good, until the Wrecking Crew out there decided to throw a giant chunk of rock from the top of the astronomy tower at us."

"I believe they call themselves the Archers of Artemis."

"Whatever," she didn't have time to stand here and debate what a Japanese archery club was doing naming themselves after a Greek god. Instead, she wanted to know why an archery club was playing with explosives on campus grounds! Where her club met, no less! "They almost killed me and three of my tourists today, Grandpa. I've put up with them wreaking havoc all over campus for two full semesters now. Isn't it time you put an end to them? They're obviously not practicing archery. And even if they were, the astronomy tower? Isn't it unsafe to shoot arrows on top a building that hundreds of people walk under each day?"

"I was under the impression that they practiced inside. They have an entire floor to themselves. And I can only assume they used explosives as part of a training exercise. You know the archery club brings in many awards from tournaments and the like each year. They've always taken extreme measures to make sure their club is up to snuff. This year's members are no different." Konoemon sat behind his desk. "I shall speak with them about keeping things a little more subtle, but they haven't harmed anyone yet."

"Yet!" Konoka sighed, throwing her hands in the air. "They almost killed me today, Grandpa. Killed. Murdered. Slaughtered. Annihilated."

"I belive I've got what you're trying to say, dear. I will take care of it."

She laughed, not bothering to try and add mirth to it. "Oh, like when they drove a jeep through the courtyard, taking out a very expensive fountain and old Ms. Worcoll on the way? And when they used the tapestry in the Main Hall for target practice then stained it with tomato sauce? How about the fire in the science building? You going to 'take care' of them just like those times?"

"My dear, I assure you there were underlying circumstances for each of those-"

"Underlying circumstances?" She knew her voice was rising, but it was useless to try and quell it. "And if I had died today? If my freshmen had been injured? You ask me to run these tours because more students equals more money for our college, but I _assure_ YOU that having a rock the size of a table dropped from a tower on your friend's head will make you choose a different college!"

Konoemon's bushy eyebrows drew closer together and she knew that look well. He was thinking something he shouldn't be.

"Grandpa?"

"Konoka," he settled back in his chair. "You were so cheerful and laid-back in middle school. What changed?"

"I grew up, Grandpa." She folded her arms across her chest and sighed again. Recently he'd been bringing this up a lot. "I'm a college student now. I have responsibilities and the like."

"You mean the tours," Konoemon mused, rubbing his stupid beard again.

"I mean my job, the tours, schoolwork. The only thing I do for me anymore is my club meetings."

Her grandpa nodded, mumbling to himself. "Well, this semester you didn't schedule many hard classes. You'll have more free time. And how's your job going?"

A frown found her face thinking about her part-time position as a waitress at the bar down the road. "They're giving me even less hours than before. I'm starting to think we've got too many workers."

"Indeed," Konoemon stroked his beard again. She just wanted to chop the thing off now. "Well, what if I offered you a better job? Much more pay."

Intrigued, she relaxed her crossed arms. "What job?" Was he going to hire her for the tours she already did free?

"I want you to join the Archers of Artemis."

"What!"

"Hear me out," he waved away her immediate protests. "They do odd jobs for me when I ask and they make a lot of money from each one. You don't actually have to join the club, but you can work the jobs with them. However, you will have to train with them for a little while to prepare yourself for the jobs so I will excuse you from running the freshmen tours for the time being."

What the hell? "What jobs could the Wrecking Crew possibly train me for?"

Konoemon's smile was far too self-satisfied for her liking. "Oh, I'm sure you'll understand once your first job comes up. Take a few days to think about it. I will still excuse you from the tours, so feel free to spend your time observing the Archers of Artemis. Ask your roommate about it if you must, though I doubt Miss Kagurazaka will have much to say on the subject. They're a rather secretive group until you've worked with them at least once."

"You expect me to run around with this group of-"

"I expect you to think about it. Go to one of their meetings. Talk with the members. Hang out with them a bit. Maybe you'll find yourself...attracted."

_Wow, way to make things sound really creepy, Grandpa. _She didn't say anything else. The headmaster was well-known for his hard-headedness. Instead she turned and stomped out, casting a glare at the Archers of Artemis sitting in the lobby.

Asuna waved merrily, saying something about seeing her tonight. Asakura winked. Kaede and Ku nodded politely. Haruna glanced up for a only a moment, then went back to her sketchbook. Setsuna, however, made no move at all. She sat still and held Konoka's gaze until the young girl had turned the corner.

Setsuna, who she hadn't spoken more than a few words with since high school. Setsuna, who once was her only friend in the world and was more or less a stranger now. Setsuna, who rarely made eye contact and when she did it was as fleeting as the sight of a hummingbird. And she had stared her straight in the eyes until Konoka was out of the room.

And that was somehow the weirdest part of her entire day.


	2. Chapter 2

**Kailor: Workin' for a livin'. Livin' and a workinnnnnnn'.**

**Naruto: Must you sing?**

**Rikku: Oh, come on. He's got a fine voice.**

**Naruto: Eh, it ain't bad. Guess I should be thankful it's not Nuriko.**

**Nuriko: What'd you say?**

**Naruto: Oh my god, what was that outside the window just now? I'll go inspect it.**

Try as she might to focus on class the next day, she kept catching herself staring at the back of the dark head in front of her.

When Setsuna had slipped into Fine Arts Survey just before class started, she hadn't made eye contact with Konoka. Just like always, she silently took her seat in front of the headmaster's granddaughter and stared at the teacher. She didn't acknowledge the young girl behind her. Normally Konoka paid just as little attention to her old friend, concentrating on her work.

But today, Konoka couldn't keep her eyes off of that sweep of black hair before her. She couldn't shake the odd feeling Setsuna's intense gaze had given her and that annoyed her more than anything.

Huffing to herself, she forced her gaze away, instead studying the classroom around them.

On her right, the class was staggered back to the wall in the seats Dr. Morten had assigned. Students in the back slept, heads propped up on fists or with faces pressed against their textbooks. Near the middle of the room they were a bit more awake, but just as inattentive and bored. The front of the class was filled with those bookworms and teacher's pets that pretended they couldn't get enough of boring, old Dr. Morten's lectures. Or maybe they really couldn't get enough, but she ignored that thought because it was incredibly depressing to think anyone enjoyed his dry, slow, monotone drawl.

From her seat, between the front and middle of the room and closest to the windows, Konoka could see that the Sandman had hit particularly hard today. Even one of the front row students was nodding off, jerking his head back again and again to wake himself up. She wasn't sleepy, but she sure wasn't listening today.

Turning to her left, she looked at the wall beside her. Though Dr. Morten could make drying wallpaper seem like an action film, she loved his class because this was one of the best rooms in the university. The wall at her side wasn't really a wall. It was a large window, checkered with long thin panes that each opened individually and locked that way. The ground outside was about her height down from the lowest windows and thick bushes ran along the wall below, barely peeking up past the floor. A line of trees was just beyond the bushes, thick enough to keep shade in the room, but with enough breaks that she could watch the people that passed occasionally through the courtyard.

She was doing just that when the lowest pane beside her leg cracked open. Fingers slid through the crack and tugged, pulling the pane open the rest of the way. Then a head of wild red hair popped up into the classroom.

Asakura noticed her and winked, just like in the headmaster's lobby.

Konoka glanced around. Dr. Morten was facing the board, trying to write legible notes that maybe two of her classmates would actually copy down. The students to her right couldn't see the open window at Konoka's feet or the redhead peeking through it. The girl behind her was asleep, forehead flat against the desk. The boy behind the sleeping girl, the last in their row and the only other one who could possibly have seen Asakura, was playing some kind of game on his phone and hadn't noticed a thing.

Setsuna, though, was looking straight down at her friend. She bent like she was tying her shoelace.

"Come on. We gotta go." Asakura hissed.

They were cutting class! _Probably sneaking off to go and destroy some other part of the school or disrupt some important meeting of the board leaders._ Well, whatever. Her grandfather said he was going to take care of them. Either he would or he wouldn't. It wasn't her problem. And a part of her wanted the black-haired girl to go. Maybe then she could focus enough to pass the next test.

Setsuna turned just enough that she could look at Konoka out of the corner of her eye. Asakura was looking at her too.

Did they think she was going to tell? She may be a lot of things, but she wasn't a snitch! "Best hurry. Dr. Morten won't be scribbling forever," she whispered.

"Actually, we thought you'd be coming with us." Asakura shifted carefully. Konoka realized she must be standing in one of the bushes below. "The old man said you were going to be observing us."

That old ass! She hadn't agreed to a damn thing, much less to sneaking out of class to see what the Wrecking Crew were up to! "No, we've got a test coming up."

Asakura shrugged and jerked her head up at Setsuna. The black-haired girl sat up straight. Konoka watched as she placed her foot on her schoolbag and pushed it towards the open window. Asakura, with her tongue stuck out in an almost comical way, reached in and grabbed the strap, pulling it towards her. The bag cleared the window and Asakura gave a small yelp as she tumbled out of sight with it. Obviously the bag was heavier than she'd imagined. Konoka fought to keep from smiling.

Setsuna bent low again, as if she'd dropped something, then she slid out of her seat and was flat on the floor. She twisted until her feet were facing the window and pushed herself out of it, catching the edge of the floor just before she disappeared. Her black eyes swung up and caught Konoka's again.

Konoka felt oddly warm under the collar. Then Setsuna was gone, the open window the only evidence that she'd ever been there.

Suddenly Dr. Morten's drawling voice seemed twice as loud and three times as annoying. Konoka sighed, closing her schoolbag and preparing for the end of class. She glanced at her watch. There was still an hour left. _Fuck_, she thought. Restless, she tapped her desk and chewed on her lip. Somebody in the back of the class snored. She looked again at her watch. A minute had passed.

Oh hell, she couldn't concentrate now. And her grandpa HAD asked her to observe them. It couldn't hurt to just watch them. And why should she stay in class when her brain was nowhere near there?

Fine. He wanted her to hang around and get to know the Wrecking Crew, then she would do just that. And he, the headmaster, would be responsible for her missing a class or being involved in something incredibly stupid. She could get the notes from a friend later.

Before she could change her mind or Dr. Morten could turn around, she hopped from her seat and slid out the still-open window, her bag hooked over her elbow.

The bushes made an unexpected amount of noise as she dropped down through them. Though she tried to be quiet as she fought her way towards the courtyard, it was extremely difficult. It seemed like each little bitty branch grabbed hold of her bag and jacket, scratching loudly and snapping back against each other when she'd passed. A root caught her foot and brought her crashing down through the foliage.

_Son of a-_ she growled to herself. The bushes weren't as thick near the ground so she army crawled her way through them until finally she could stick her head out into the open. The courtyard appeared empty at that moment so she pulled herself a little farther into it, yanking her bag out of the thicket behind her.

"Well, Miss Konoe. Imagine my surprise. I thought you had Dr. Morten's class at this time. You know Mahora University doesn't tolerate skipping out."

She struggled to look up at the source of the voice. Mr. Neket(or Naked as they called him behind his back) was peering down at her through his wire-rim glasses, a half-smirk on his handsome young face.

"Oh, hi, Mr. Neket. Uh, I'll just be going now." She crawled backwards, trying to disappear into the bushes. Great. She decided to follow her grandpa's directions and got caught skipping out of class immediately. Maybe when Mr. Neket reported it to him, Konoemon would wise up and drop this stupid thing about her joining the Archers of Artemis. She couldn't even shoot a bow. Probably couldn't even pull the string.

"Konoka! Hurry up, we're going to be late."

She froze as Asakura's voice cut through the bushes. Hands grabbed her shoulders and lifted her easily. Her feet cleared the bushes and she held tight to her bag to keep from losing it. She hung in Kaede's grasp for a few moments until the fox-eyed girl lowered her to the courtyard pathway. Asakura and Setsuna stood beside her- Asakura smiling, Setsuna emotionless as ever.

Mr. Neket looked surprised to see the three Archers there. "Oh, Miss Asakura, Miss Sakurazaki, Miss Nagase, how are you?"

"We're fine, Mr. Neket." Asakura chirped. "Just came to get our new recruit. She got a little held up by the bushes."

Setsuna put herself between the professor and Konoka, dusting the leaves and dirt from Konoka's clothes. Her eyes remained fixed on Konoka's shoulder, as if their moments of eye contact before hadn't happened.

"Oh, I see." Mr. Neket said. "Forgive me for holding her up as well then. Carry on. Good luck."

"To you too, Mr. Neket." Kaede and Asakura chorused, waving as he turned and departed.

Asakura flashed a grin at Konoka. "You're lucky we happened to be passing back this way. Mr. Neket can be a bit of a hard-ass. But he's a good guy."

"Is he just going to let us go, because you're the Archers of Artemis? And good luck with what?"

"Generally teachers let us do what we want." Kaede laughed. "A privilege of our society." No one attempted to answer her second question.

What did that mean? Their society? They were an archery club with only five members! And why did a teacher like Naked just let them go when he KNEW they were skipping class? He'd definitely had the air of a teacher about to report her before the Archers had showed up. Were their archery trophys really worth that much to the university?

_I'll have to do some research later._

"Coming?" Kaede turned and headed in the opposite direction of Mr. Neket. Asakura and Setsuna trailed after, leaving Konoka to follow or be left behind.

The astronomy tower came into view and Kaede led them down a back alley around the cafeteria and a moment later they were stepping into the shadow of the tower. She'd never realized there was a shortcut to the place. She definitely would have utilized it.

They entered the ground level, flashing their student ID cards to the two desk clerks. Konoka was surprised to find they were two members of her old Library Club back in middle school and high school. "Nodoka? Yue? Aren't you usually desk clerks in the library? Where are Vera and Sally?"

Nodoka Miyazaki, pushing her shaggy black hair away from her eyes, smiled happily as Konoka stopped to talk to them. Yue Ayase, as dead-pan as ever, simply sipped from a juice box and nodded a greeting. She looked exactly as she always had with her braids in the front and long black hair tied at the end, except maybe a little taller. Haruna had been in their old club too, but since she'd joined the archery club the four of them spent little time together anymore.

"We transfered here. Vera and Sally switched places with us. Haruna got us to join the Archers of Artemis because they didn't have enough researchers." Nodoka said.

"Researchers?" Konoka was confused. Why did an archery club need researchers?

"Hey, we're late!" Asakura grabbed her arm and dragged her along towards the elevators. "We're late, we're late. For a very important date. No time to play, no time to waste, we're late, we're late, we're late!" She tossed Konoka into the elevator and slammed a certain set of buttons before Konoka could say anything else. She sang the stupid little ditty the whole time they rode up. By the time the doors opened, Konoka was ready to throttle her.

The top of the astronomy tower had two levels. You were either 'on the roof' or 'at the top'. On the roof meant out on the balcony or up in the dome. At the top was inside, but on the very top floor, one short spiral staircase from the roof. This was where the archery club called home. There was a specialized code they had to put into the elevator to get to this floor. Nobody but their club was allowed inside. Konoka had passed it uncountable times to visit the dome and balcony, but she'd always wondered why the club got its own special floor.

Now she knew.

The room seemed even larger than she'd thought possible inside the tower. Along the far wall was a row of traditional ring targets, each sporting a flurry of arrows stuck in them. Sand bags hung a few feet above each. Human shapes had been painted onto the wall behind them, some running, some standing. One was laying flat on the ground, as if sleeping. The side of the room they entered on was filled with plush couches and armchairs big enough to fit two people. A large TV was mounted on the wall and off to her right was a group of very expensive looking computers and laptops. To her left was a wall full of weapons. Not only were there dozens of bows and quivers, but swords, lances, nunchucks, guns, daggers, ninja stars, and one giant fan that she assumed was probably more for decoration. A rolling ladder, usually only seen in the libraries, was leaned against the wall. In the center of the room were practice mats. These mats were where she found the rest of the Archers of Artemis and a few surprises.

Haruna was sketching the two fighters in the center of the mats and Ku was watching over her shoulder, commenting occasionally.

Negi Springfield was there, sitting beside a boy his age with black hair and eyes. She thought his name might be Kojiro or something like that.

Evangeline McDowell, her only middle school classmate who had never gone to a university, was laid out on her side, watching the fighters. Her blonde hair was tied up in pigtails today and she still didn't look a day over ten. Konoka tried for a moment to remember the name of that disease-the one that made you look like a kid no matter how old you got. She gave up quickly. Didn't matter what it was called.

Mana Tatsumiya stood beside Evangeline, looking like her complete opposite. Her dark skin, dark hair, huge chest, and tall stature only helped point out how short, flat, and white Eva was.

The biggest surprise by far, however, was Chisame Hasegawa. She sat off to the side from the others, typing on a tiny laptop. Her orangish hair was still tied back in the most sensible and lazy way, her coke-bottle glasses still shone from the light of her computer screen, and she still looked like she didn't want to be near any of them. Konoka had always assumed she'd just skip college, since she was such a huge internet idol, but Chisame had applied and been accepted just before she was.

She wasn't surprised at all to find that one of the fighters was her roommate. Asuna had a girl pinned to the mat, straddling her back and fighting to keep her still. The girl's long blonde hair spilled across the mat like a puddle of sunshine. And when the girl wriggled free and managed to flip Asuna to the mat, Konoka WAS surprised to recognize Ayaka Yukihiro. She'd been Class Rep back in middle school and most of their old class still called her that. Though it was a shock to see her here, in the Archers of Artemis room, it was no surprise that she was fighting Asuna. The two had been bitter rivals from the very beginning.

"Konoka."

She jumped as that soft, slightly husky voice called her name. Setsuna was the only one still standing beside her. Kaede and Asakura had wandered off to the group in the center of the room.

The black-haired girl once again did not meet her gaze. She stared at a spot just to the side of Konoka's face, head slightly bent.

Konoka tried not to turn red. _What? Am I so ugly you can't look at me, Setsuna? Geez, we were friends once._

She moved towards the others, Setsuna close behind her.

"Hey, Asuna," she called.

The redhead looked up, distracted long enough for Ayaka to throw her across the mats. She skidded to a halt beside Chisame, who didn't even blink. Asuna rolled to her feet, dusting off her jogging suit. "Konoka! You really came! I thought Gramps was kidding when he said you'd be joining us."

"So did I," Konoka admitted. She crossed to her roommate's side. "I thought the archery club only had five members."

"It did last semester. We managed to convince some of the old classmates to join. And Mana just enrolled at the beginning of this semester."

"What about Negi and the other boy?"

"Oh," Asuna shrugged nonchalantly. "They aren't really members. They're both too young to be college students, even though Negi's already got his degree. Stupid genius. Kotaro's his friend and they come to watch."

_Kotaro. I was close._

"And what's with all the weapons?" She nodded to the wall covered with them. "I thought this was an ARCHERY club."

"It is," Asakura butted in. "Technically. Really, we do just about anything and everything you can think of. Archery is just the only thing we compete in, so the board leaders call us the archery club."

"I see," Konoka said, nodding. "And the C4?"

"Ah," Asakura laughed, her cheeks pinkening a bit. "That was my bad. I can shoot an arrow through a keychain ring at a hundred paces, but I can't throw a basketball into a pool from about three feet. I kinda missed my aim."

A keychain ring? A hundred paces? She was exaggerating, surely.

"And why were you throwing around explosives?"

"A story for another day." Asakura waved it off. "Want to wrestle a bit? It's wonderful exercise."

"I think I'll pass," Konoka huffed, as if it were the last thing on earth she'd consider doing. In reality, it did look like fun, but she knew she was no match for any of the present company. Except maybe Eva or Negi. Kotaro looked like he could hold his own.

"You're late, Asakura." Haruna said. "You're always late."

"My fault," Setsuna said, staring at Haruna's sketchbook. "Took a bit to sneak out of class."

Which was entirely untrue. Saving Konoka was what had held them up. She said as much.

"Well, that was just extra. We still would have been late." Setsuna shrugged it off, still not quite looking directly at her.

It was really starting to tick her off. She'd thought Setsuna was so distant because they'd been distant for so long now that it was habit. But now that they were supposed to "hang out" and "get to know each other" was she still going to act like looking at Konoka repulsed her? Maybe that was why she didn't press the issue any further. Setsuna didn't even want to look at her? Fine, she could take the blame.

"Well, couldn't be helped, I guess." Haruna continued, flipping her sketchbook closed. "Shall we practice while Asuna tells us about our next job?"

Affirmatives traveled through the group and Haruna, Setsuna, Asakura, Ku, Kaede, Asuna, and Tatsumiya moved to the weapon wall to choose a bow. Chisame shuffled off to sit on one of the couches. Negi and Kotaro joined her. Eva remained laid out, watching silently. Ayaka and Konoka sat together on the mats, somewhere between Eva and Chisame.

Asakura was the first to return with her bow. She flashed a grin at Konoka and held up something small with a metallic shine.

She walked to the other side of the huge room and put whatever was in her hand on top of one of the targets, taking a long while to set it right. Konoka couldn't even see what it was from that distance.

Asakura jogged back to the couches, pulled an arrow from a quiver she'd strapped to her waist, and fired.

The whole shot was a single movement. Fluid. Graceful. Incredibly fast. Konoka didn't even see the arrow fly. It was simply gone from Asakura's hand and a dull thunk echoed from the other end of the room.

"Konoka, could you get that arrow for me?"

Konoka sighed, hopped up, and made her way to the targets. If Asakura thought she was here to be the arrow fetcher, she had another think coming. And-wait...how big was this room? She felt like she'd never reach the other side at this pace, so she broke into a fast jog. Sweet Jesus, was all of the tower this big? It had never occured to her before.

She reached the targets and slipped between two, focusing on the arrow embedded in the wall. She realized two things then.

One, the wall wasn't really a "wall" but a large mat that matched the ones on the floor and it was full of holes.

Two, the arrow was buried deep in the mat's foam and hanging around the shaft, still swinging lightly, was a keychain ring.


End file.
